Tamworth's Coorigil St ‘really did look like a war zone’

TAMWORTH’S Coorigil St was just one of the city’s streets that resembled a disaster movie scene following Monday afternoon’s fierce storm.

The South Tamworth street bore the brunt of the wild weather with torn leaves littering the road, smashed glass scattered across lawns, gardens trashed and branches detached from trees of all shapes and sizes.

At least 20 of the street’s homes are thought to have suffered some form of damage, including more than 40 broken windows, from huge hailstones.

Many residents were assisted by the SES to put up wooden boards while they waited for busy glaziers to replace broken glass yesterday.

Coorigil St residents who battened down the hatches during the storm emerged from their homes about 3.40pm to inspect the damage.

One Coorigil St resident had just flown in from Sydney at 5pm on Monday to find six of her home’s windows completely smashed.

Luckily for Donna Johnston, her flight landed well after the storm, but its after-effects caused her plane to be grounded at the Tamworth Regional Airport for about 20 minutes before getting the all-clear.

Mrs Johnston said her husband had already been at the house to discover the extent of the damage.

Six of their home’s rear windows were smashed, with the force from the large hail- stones so strong that a lounge was shredded in parts from flying shattered glass.

“My youngest daughter arrived home from school and thought someone had broken in,” she said.

More glass lay about in the backyard and some of the window blinds were strewn across the lawn.

“It really did look like a war zone,” she said.

Parts of the backyard’s Colorbond fence were punched-in by hailstones and the wind had ripped flowers and trees from gardens.